From your description it sunds like you create the PDF file via “printing” to a PDF file.

When you do so, the resulting PDF file will not be truly Black&White, but rather a color mixture.

Instead, use the Graphics Tool to export as PDF.

In that way the PDF will have the same page size as the Finale document.

And you will get a true Black&White PDF file.

Also, the file size will be smaller, mostly because Finale only embeds the fonts once for the entire PDF file.

Not really ... hate to disagree, but some testing shows these PDF results:

for a demonstration/example I used a Finale 2014.5 musx file of 304kb size, 31 pages, A3 landcape format and converted it to PDF via

1) File >Export >PDF and

2) Graphics Tool >Export Pages >PDF - both create the exact same result (very large files of 2074kb, same method, bothing using PDF Producer PDF-XChange 4.0), then using

3) File >Print > PDFcreator yields a PDF file of 286kb (!)

as far as I can see 3) looks actually better (and the other conversions did some strange things such as displacing triplet brackets), and "truly Black&White, but rather a color mixture..."  seems to make no difference when printing

Michael M,

The original poster (= Victor Frost) is using Mac Finale, and my reply was about Finale for Mac OS X.

Other users of Windows Finale have reported the same results as you.

There are definitely differences between Windows Finale and Mac Finale in printing and exporting to PDF.

Many thanks, Peter.  It seems that MM has shunted all its old pdf functionality to the Mac system, with this as the result.  Sigh.

To answer your original question... which, if I read correctly... has nothing to do with color...

1. Go to File > Page Setup
2. Click on the "Format For:" popup
3. Scroll to the top of the list of choices - select  "Any Printer"
4. Click on the "Paper Size:" popup
5. Scroll to "Tabloid" - or make a custom size 11 x 17
6. Click OK
7. File > Print
8. "Save as PDF" - should work.

If it does not work at this point - change the page size in the File > Print dialog box to Tabloid before selecting "Save as PDF." Also - make sure the orientation is set to "Portrait."  Good luck and let us know if you were able to get it to work...

Thank you, Doug.  I had already tried that, and it did not work:  same error message about wrong paper size.  Tabloid had not appeared in the list you mention, so I did make a custom 11 x 17.  That is indeed what shows up during the file printing, but the error message still comes up.

Although the error message has the Finale emblem, my guess is that it is really generated by the system.  It knows that my printer can only use 8 x 11 paper, and interposes itself when I try to do a job (even pdf) involving a larger size.     

I don't get why there's a problem when Peter already gave the solution. That you don't have a tabloid printer is only important if you are using the Print menu.

Export as .pdf in the Graphics menu. Select your resolution—300 dpi works for me in Tabloid but perhaps 600 will look better for you. Now you have a .pdf file that can be printed by anyone, anywhere on anything.

This is a Finale 25 for Mac issue. If you are running Windows or using 2014.5 or any older version, you are not going to see this.

Mac printing works just fine but you use the Finale Print options and not the Mac options when doing so, Again, this changed for 25. The Help files cover it pretty well. I do have a tabloid printer as you can see.

Well.... bummer! I've been using that "PDF" button in the lower left of the print dialog box for years - never an issue.

If your score pages are formatted 11x17 in your Finale file - you should be able to export them via the Graphics tool menu item. I just tried it and it worked as expected on my system using Finale 25.5

1. Click to select the Graphics Tool.
2. Go to menu GRAPHICS > EXPORT PAGES...
3. Make sure PDF is showing in the popup menu of that dialog box.
4. Click the OK button - name your new file, navigate to where you want it to land, and click OK.

I tried it with letter size selected in the page setup dialog, with letter selected in the print dialog and it always created a page size based on the size of the score in Finale. I tried several different score sizes while keeping the page setup size to letter - the resulting PDFs from the GRAPHICS menu were always determined by the formatted score size - not the page setup paper size.

If this still doesn't work and you need something quick - email me the file and I will gladly export it to PDF and send it right back.

Thanks for that kind offer, Doug, but the Graphics workaround, already suggested above by Peter, worked great.  And as he implied, the pdf is of reasonable size.  The only problem I had was that instead of its generating the page range I stipulated, it did the whole file.  Easy of course to fix. 

Thanks again for everyone's input; the problem is solved.  I just got a notice (a week later) regarding Mike H.'s posts, and yet it seems (from the dates) they have been in the system all along.  They were not visible to me before.  So if things seem non sequitur, here or elsewhere, this kind of problem might account for it.  Peter answered my question and provided the desired workaround almost immediately.  I acknowledged that but further suggestions kept coming.  In one case, I mentioned to one person why his particular workaround was not availing, and this might have given the impression that I was still in trouble and looking for further input.  All's well and all that!  

>I just got a notice (a week later) regarding Mike H.'s posts, and yet it seems (from the dates) they have been in the system all along.  They were not visible to me before.<

There's a lot of that on these boards.  I'm seeing that comments were made and I have email showing what they were but, when you read the thread, they're not visible. Then, a week or 10 days later, they reappear out of sequence. Sometimes, the email shows up 10 days later—I got one today on a notice that Peter made a week and a half ago.

MM needs to pay attention and fix this or move to a different platform. Were this not an official support site, it wouldn't matter. But it is...